{"id":467,"date":"2024-07-13T01:37:56","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T01:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=467"},"modified":"2024-10-14T12:54:19","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T16:54:19","slug":"fly-me-to-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/13\/fly-me-to-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Fly Me to the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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Fly Me to the Moon<\/strong>\u00a0(2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 132 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (some strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Greg Berlanti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rose Gilroy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Daniel Pemberton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 12, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Woody Harrelson, Ray Romano, Jim Rash, Anna Garcia, Donald Elise Watkins, Noah Robbins, Christian Clemenson, Colin Woodell, Nick Dillenburg, Christian Zuber, Gene Jones, Joe Chrest, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Colin Jost, Peter Jacobson. \u00a0<\/p>\r\n

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Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\r\n

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\u00a0We\u2019ve all heard the conspiracy theorists say the 1969 moon landing was fake, that it never happened. They claim the live footage America watched on television was secretly pre-filmed by Stanley Kubrick on the orders of the government.\u00a0Fly Me to the Moon<\/strong>, a rom-com set around that pivotal moment in 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century history, is a funny take on that theory. It\u2019s also one that will likely go over the heads of younger viewers who can\u2019t conceive of a time when humans couldn\u2019t easily travel into space. I was the only one laughing at the Kubrick line in the trailer.<\/p>\r\n

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\u00a0For the most part, I like\u00a0Fly Me to the Moon<\/strong>. It\u2019s entertaining. However, it has difficulty settling on an identity. Sometimes it\u2019s a retro rom-com about a mismatched pair finding love with each other. Sometimes it\u2019s a witty political satire about when the Space Race and Cold War collided. That\u2019s the part I like best. Sometimes it\u2019s a drama about remorse, something the two main characters have in common. Each thing, on its own, isn\u2019t bad. The problem is the director Greg Berlanti (Love, Simon) can\u2019t seem to find the right balance. The result is a film that\u2019s tonally all over the place. It\u2019s still pretty good, but it could have been great.<\/p>\r\n

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\u00a0It\u2019s 1969 and the men at NASA are trying like hell to put a man on the moon before the Russians beat them to it. Congress isn\u2019t completely on board and the rest of the country is preoccupied with the Vietnam War. They\u2019re going to need some help selling the idea to the American people. Enter Kelly Jones (Johansson, Marriage Story), a New York ad executive recruited by a shadowy government type (Harrelson, The People vs. Larry Flynt) to take charge of publicity. Launch director Cole Davis (Tatum, Magic Mike) hates the idea. He takes the Apollo 11 mission very seriously and with only seven months to work out all the scientific bugs, he doesn\u2019t have time to screw around.<\/p>\r\n

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\u00a0Cole has his meet-cute with Kelly at a bar in Cocoa Beach, FL. He stops her from setting herself and the place on fire. They flirt a little before he leaves. The next day she shows up at his workplace. He\u2019s unpleasantly surprised to find out she\u2019s going to be the pain in his ass until blast off. They bicker at first, but eventually re-realize they\u2019re attracted to each other. Well, you know how the story goes.<\/p>\r\n

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\u00a0Kelly turns things around at NASA. They get the funding they need. She gets a few senators on board through trickery and manipulation. Those are her specialties. The mission seems headed towards success yet the government guy still has doubts. He orders Kelly to covertly shoot a successful moon landing on a soundstage to be used in the event of failure. She can\u2019t tell anybody, not even Cole. This becomes a moral quandary. She loves the big patriotic lug, but she faces big problems if she tells him what\u2019s happening behind his back.<\/p>\r\n

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\u00a0Some of the funniest parts of\u00a0Fly Me to the Moon<\/strong>\u00a0involve the making of the fake moon landing. In desperate need of a director who\u2019s available and cheap, Kelly brings in Lance (Rash, Community), a flamboyant and temperamental filmmaker with Tab soda running through his veins. He nearly steals the show with his hissy fits and snarky remarks. He\u2019s the guy that makes Kelly wish she hired Kubrick.<\/p>\r\n

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\u00a0I love Scarlett Johansson. She\u2019s smart, talented and gorgeous which makes playing Kelly not much of a stretch for her. She nails it as the female version of Don Draper from Mad Men. This is one little lady who can play with the big boys and win. She\u2019s also a lady with a past she doesn\u2019t want anyone to know about. This is where the remorse drama figures into the equation. Cole is carrying guilt of his own over the failure of Apollo 1. In the role, Tatum is okay. I\u2019ve always thought of him as beefcake, nothing more. He\u2019s handsome and well-built, but his acting ability leaves something to be desired. He\u2019s better in\u00a0Fly Me to the Moon<\/strong>\u00a0than I expected him to be. It\u2019s not Oscar-level acting, but it\u2019s a noticeable improvement over the Magic Mike movies.<\/p>\r\n

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Now here\u2019s the problem. As good as each actor is on his and her own, they have no chemistry with each other. Her effervescence doesn\u2019t mesh with his stoicism like it should. Their back-and-forth banter doesn\u2019t have the same sting as\u2026. oh, let\u2019s say Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday. Or if you prefer a more recent example, Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell in last year\u2019s Anyone But You. I\u2019ll admit they make an attractive looking pair, but the sparks just aren\u2019t there.<\/p>\r\n

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\u00a0One more little criticism and I\u2019m done. At 132 minutes,\u00a0Fly Me to the Moon<\/strong>\u00a0is longer than it needs to be. Berlanti could\u2019ve tightened things up a bit. Fortunately, it\u2019s never boring. It\u2019s interesting watching everybody working towards a common and seemingly impossible goal, putting our guys on the moon. Berlanti recreates the time period perfectly with the vintage clothes, cars and interiors not to mention the ads Kelly comes up with for the astronauts (Tang anyone?). The supporting cast is a big help. Harrelson is humorously menacing as the government guy. Donald Elise Watkins (The Underground Railroad) and Noah Robbins (The Outcasts) are a winning pair as a couple of NASA tech geeks. \u00a0It\u2019s a fun and enjoyable movie albeit an imperfect one. Still, I\u2019ll take it over another superhero movie any day of the week.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Fly Me to the Moon\u00a0(2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 132 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (some strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Greg Berlanti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rose Gilroy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Daniel Pemberton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 12, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Woody Harrelson, Ray Romano, Jim Rash, Anna Garcia, Donald Elise Watkins, Noah Robbins, Christian Clemenson, Colin Woodell, Nick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Fly-Me-to-the-Moon-PIC.jpg?fit=820%2C504&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1857,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions\/1857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}